W. Chester to stay with 10 elementary schools

WEST GOSHEN – West Chester Area School District officials unanimously voted to continue with 10 elementary schools Monday after a fact gathering initiative during the past couple months looked into the possibility of scaling back to nine.

School board members voted on the item after long discussion and public comment at Monday’s Property and Finance Committee meeting.

According to Superintendent Jim Scanlon, the vote means no presentation will be made at the Nov. 26 board meeting to discuss any additional space consolidation data and no vote will be taken at the Dec. 17 meeting to close a school. Scanlon said the board will continue with the 10 elementary school renovation plan with East Bradford slated as the next to begin renovations.

“Because we are heading into renovations on East Bradford Elementary early next year, the committee was under a short time-line to digest the data and provide feedback,” said Sean Carpenter, chairman of the property and finance committee. “After objectively reviewing the administration’s presentation, the committee felt that there was simply not enough compelling evidence to close a school.”

Bids for the East Bradford renovation are expected to be awarded in January, with construction beginning in spring 2013. Fern Hill Elementary will come after East Bradford. Currently Westtown-Thornbury and Penn Wood elementary schools are being renovated.

School officials first discussed evaluating the possibility of a nine-school renovation plan in September.

The idea for nine-school system was suggested by a community budget task force last year as a way to save money.

“This decision is important because the school district can now begin its planning to redistrict students to provide relief at Hillsdale and Starkweather Elementary Schools and to add students to East Bradford,” Scanlon said.

The committee members asked administration to consider a redistricting plan that would keep students together when moving from elementary to middle school, according to Scanlon. The district currently sends students from Hillsdale and Fern Hill Elementary Schools to two different middle schools.

Carpenter said the split of the elementary schools population into the different middle schools was one of his biggest concerns though he added administration suggested this could likely be achieved when they redistrict with a 10-school plan, making the district able to address the issue in either model.

The district will begin working on a redistricting plan in fall 2013. Scanlon said the redistricting plan will be implemented after renovations of East Bradford, in about 2016.